The police, your friend and helper

Brock was a picture of a man, broad shoulders and chiseled jaw, but Thomas had no reason to be jealous. He might fear Emma throwing their saviour thirsty looks, but it took a lot more for Emma to really be interested in another man.

Grace on the other hand…. Well, she was hooked the moment she saw the handsome stranger. And every word she heard about him confirmed what she already knew. She had to have him. The quarterback. The bad boy. An authority figure in uniform. Grace felt her eyes roam the man in front of her with a longing she hadn’t felt for the longest time.

The deputy led the four new arrivals a little down to his Chevy cruiser. He opened the cars backdoor and gestured inside.

“Well, it isn’t the entry you probably wanted Thomas, but its all I can give you”, he shrugged his shoulders. ”I have the backseat for three of you to press into and the prime spo-“

Before he could finish his sentence Grace had already advanced on him and raised her hand in the air.

“Shotgun!”, she giggled somewhat artificially. Almost in synch Thomas, Emma and Christopher rolled their eyes at their friends little show. It was useless to try and argue with Grace at this point. It was already settled.

Not that any of the others would have even wanted to sit up front. Thomas had no desire to be nearer to someone he had suppressed the memory of, quite successfully, than was necessary. Emma was pretty happy to sit beside her sweetheart, even if it got a little confined back there and Christopher just didn’t care.

He had put little hope in this trip being half as exciting as the turn of the year was in the big city. And that spark of hope had dwindling and shrunk down to a crisp when his friend got them into an accident before even arriving. He overplayed it a little on the outside, but he was starting to get pissed. Grace fawning over the first guy they met didn’t help him. But Grace and him…. That was a topic he didn’t want to dwell on, so Chris joined his friends on the backseat.

“So, you’re a deputy sheriff, huh?”, Grace started conversation while Brock started the car.

“Yeah, who better to keep the law than one who knew how to break it”, the lawmen coquettishly answered her.

That got Thomas thinking. It felt weird from the start, but it made less sense the more he thought about it.

“Why would Sheriff Sloan over get you into the ****? Didn’t he hate your guts after that thing with his son?”, Thomas wondered aloud.

Brocks face turned grim for the first time and it felt to Thomas like the cars temperature dropped a couple digits.

“That’s all history Thomas. Wouldn’t want to warm up stuff like that. Some things are better kept buried deep. Besides, old man Sloan isn’t Sheriff anymore. You should have your parents bring you up to speed when you get home”, Brock told him, barely hiding a certain grim edge.

A car filled to the brim with people turned dead silent. Even with her beginning crush, Grace didn’t want to bridge that awkwardness. So she slumped back in her seat and turned back to her phone screen. At that Chris couldn’t suppress a small cynic smile. And while Thomas and Emma threw each other a worried glance, the deputy sheriff turned on the radio. This would be one of those rides.